A novel behavioral paradigm reveals the nature of confidence computation in multi-alternative perceptual decision making
2024
Understanding Confidence in Decision Making
publication
Author Information
Author(s): Xue Kai, Shekhar Medha, Rahnev Dobromir
Hypothesis
How is confidence computed in multi-alternative perceptual decision making?
Conclusion
The study found that confidence is best explained by the difference between the two alternatives with the largest evidence.
Supporting Evidence
- The internal representation for stimuli can be described with a simple, one-parameter equation.
- A single free parameter can explain multi-alternative data for up to 12 different conditions.
- The predictions of the first two theories of confidence were falsified in two experiments.
Takeaway
This study shows that when making decisions with many options, our confidence comes from comparing the best two choices.
Methodology
A new behavioral paradigm was developed where subjects discriminated the dominant color in a cloud of differently colored dots.
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
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